Draft AIXM-401 Use of term UA(S) instead of UAV

Description

Add additional values to the AIXM UML Model that use the up-to-date unmanned aviation terminology, i.e. UA(S).

Rationale for change

See https://aixmccb.atlassian.net/browse/AIXM-170.

AIXM 5.1(.1) uses the term UAV to refer to unmanned aircraft terminology, while the international aviation community is stepping away from this term in favor of UA(S) (unmanned aircraft (system)). A few sources:

• ICAO: ICAO Circular 328 marks the term UAV as obsolete and uses UA(S). In addition, RPA(S) is used to refer to the subset of UA(S) that require a remote pilot. Their list of frequently used terms in unmanned aviation also solely uses UA(S) and RPA(S).
• Europe: The SESAR roadmap for drone integration in Europe uses the term “drones” as generic term, in addition to UAS and RPAS. This is aligned with EASA’s opinion on the  Safe operation of drones in Europe.\
• US: The FAA Aerospace Forecast 2018 – 2038 solely uses the term UA(S); there is no use of RPA(S). This is also confirmed by FAA in the JIRA issue.

Given the fact there is no global consensus on the term RPA(S), the suggested change only introduces UA(S) as term to refer to unmanned aircraft (systems) as replacement for UAV. Additional values that specify subsets of UA(S) can be added in future versions.

Impact assessment

There is no impact on existing implementations as the current AIXM 5.1(.1) data remains fully valid against AIXM 5.2. No values are removed from this list.

When receiving data from AIXM 5.2 implementations, current AIXM 5.1(.1) systems will have be able to map back the new values into the existing UAV value, as described in the mapping rules further in this document.

Change Proposal details

In the UML model:

• Add the following value to the CodeAircraftBaseType
• UA with definition (from ICAO) “Unmanned aircraft. An aircraft intended to be flown without a pilot on board. It can be remotely and fully controlled from another place (ground, another aircraft, space) or pre-programmed to conduct its flight without intervention.”
• Add the following value to the CodeAirspaceActivityBaseType
• UAS with definition (from ICAO) “An aircraft and its associated elements which are operated with no pilot on board.”
• Delete UAV in CodeAircraftBaseType and CodeAirspaceActivityBaseType.

The following UML class diagram highlights the changed lists of values.

Mapping AIXM 5.1.1 to AIXM 5.2 (forward)

[MAPC-00] The following algorithm shall be applied:

• For each AircraftCharacteristic. type that has values ”UAV”
• Replace the value ”UAV” with “UA”
• For each AirspaceActivation. activity that has values “UAV”
• Replace the value “UAV” with “UAS”

Mapping AIXM 5.2 to AIXM 5.1.1 (backward)

[MAPC-00] The following algorithm shall be applied:

• For each AircraftCharacteristic.type that has value “UA”:
• Replace the value “UA” with “UAV”.
• For each AirspaceActivation.activity that has values “UAS”:
• Replace the value “UAS“ with “UAV”.

Mapping example

(Note: for mapping test data see: https://github.com/aixm/mapping_52_511/tree/master/AIXM-xxx) 

AIXM 5.2	AIXM 5.1(.1)